Most people have been fooled at some point in their lives about things both minor and major. Perhaps you were duped into buying a product that didn’t actually work, mislead by a partner, deceived by a colleague, or hoodwinked by a President who claimed to fight for you, when in actuality, he was conning you out of your hard earned money to pay his legal fees, passing tax cuts that hurt your financial bottom line, and supporting actions that place your health, and that of your family in danger. Donald’s persona is trumping public health and democracy. His supporters bought into his business savvy, brash, macho, outsider, billionaire branding. Although they skipped right over the racism. Hey, it happens to the best of us. I’m still embarrassed as hell that I bought into Bill Cosby’s persona, I loved the Cosby Show, and was thankful to share in Huxtable family fun every Thursday night. It wasn’t until comedian Hannibal Buress, that I learned Cosby was drugging and raping women. How was this not front page above the fold news earlier? Were people ignoring the valid concerns about Cosby’s attacks on the Black community because we couldn’t compute that someone who donated generously to HBCU’s, gave us Fat Albert, A Different World, and Little Bill, could do such things? Some people are good at putting up a front, constructing an image, and surrounding themselves with props of protection that support the persona they project. Was I fooled by Cosby’s persona, yes. However, once I learned of what he did, and what he was doing, being fooled was immediately replaced by being furious. Fuck Bill Cosby.
It can be difficult to admit when you’ve been fooled, to acknowledge that you fell for a lie. It seems the more authority, money, or resources a person has, the more successful they are at fooling people into thinking their persona is real. But, that’s certainly not the case all of the time, a particular socio-economic status does not negate a person from being a con artist, from taking advantage of others, they too are fully capable of fooling folks into following them. Watching people swallow the swindle Donald is peddling, initially provoked a sincere desire to rescue them from being fooled. Surely if they actually knew what he was doing, and what he has done, they would not be willing participants in supporting his criminal actions. However, it seems not all who consume Donald’s poisonous persona are being duped or fooled, they know what he’s doing and they don’t care. There’s a difference between being fooled and being a fool – acknowledgement of fact, even when it disagrees with your feelings. It is dangerous to continue to indulge Donald or his cult of followers. Fools cause chaos, and that’s exactly what Donald wants – chaos and doubt so he can conceal and disguise his deeds. Mayhem is Donald’s camouflage. No one should be dismissive of what Donald’s cult of fools are doing right now, and what they will do in the future. We need to pay attention, and take seriously their words and actions.
“It’s easier to fool people than it is to convince them that they have been fooled.” Mark Twain